Social and Affective Science Lab
The Difference and Link Between Affect and Cognition
A crucial question across myriad scientific disciplines including by not limited to affective science, cognitive science, and psychology is, what is the difference between affect (i.e., feeling) and cognition (i.e., thinking) and how do they influence one another? The answers to this question have the potential to transform our understanding of basic human processes and the questions that we ask about them. However, few theories exist that delineate exactly how affect and cognitive systems interact with one another.
Our lab provides initial answers to this question by investigating how sensory information is uniquely processed and interpreted by the affective and cognitive systems to ultimately shape how we understand, experience, and interact with our world.
Current Research Projects
Belongingness and Social Integration
This project concerns one of the most basic and fundamental needs that people have: the need to belong. While abundant research has underscored the crucial link between a person’s sense of belonging and their physical, mental, and psychological health, we surprisingly know very little about the mechanisms through which people experience belongingness.
This project aims to better understand belongingness by answering some of the following questions: What exactly is a sense of belonging, or more specifically, what is happening at a psychological level when people say, “I feel a sense of belonging”? How do people involve themselves in relationships and groups (i.e., socially integrate) to persistently and consistently experience a sense of belonging? How do relationship and group dynamics hinder as well as facilitate a person’s ability to experience a sense of belonging?
Human Health as a Function of Deviations from Expectations and Standards
People are driven to reduce perceived discrepancies from self-related standards and expectations. Research also indicates that persistent discrepancies from these standards and expectations have crucial negative implications for all aspects of human health (e.g., physical, mental, psychological). However, do specific standard and expectation discrepancies (e.g., “ideal” or “ought” self discrepancies) influence specific facets of human health? What influences whether and how people attempt to reduce perceived discrepancies? Does the effectiveness of discrepancy reduction efforts, and therefore human health, depend on the specific ways in which people attempt to reduce those discrepancies?
This project aims to answer these questions and better understand how human health is influenced by specific modes of self-regulation in reference to specific types of standards and expectations.
